This Is What It's All About
by ashby
Summary: Just a post-Hogwarts story featuring Ron/Hermione, Ginny/Harry, all their lovely offspring, and many more!


Disclaimer: Everything here belongs to J.K. Rowling. They certainly do not belong to me.  
  
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"Daddy, if blue and yellow make green, does green and yellow make blue?" A small girl of seven with two long red plaits stared across the table at her father expectantly.  
  
Her father, Ron Weasley, was currently busy trying to make his fifteen month old daughter eat something he never would have touched himself- smashed green peas mixed with mashed potatoes. Just the sight of it was almost enough to make him sick. No wonder Sharlie was blowing spit bubbles every time he held the spoon to her lips. "Um, no, Kate, it doesn't." He said this without taking his eyes off of the baby.  
  
Katharina Christine Weasley, more commonly known as Katie, Kate, Kat, or Rina to a select few- never Kathy, though, as she detested that name, sat staring at her father and her little sister. It was obvious that she was not satisfied with the answer. "Why not?"  
  
Ron sighed as he held the spoon up to Sharlie's lips and tried to force another bite on her, only to be met with another spit bubble- this one leaving her lips and hitting his cheek. He sat the spoon down and reached up to wipe the baby saliva from his face and said, "It just doesn't."  
  
Kate was quiet for a minute before rolling her eyes and saying, "You don't know why, do you?"  
  
Ron looked at her curiously, not surprised at all by her remark. He started to say something to his defense, but his daughter cut him off.  
  
"If Mum was here, she would know."  
  
Ron rolled his eyes and once again held the spoon up in a (vain) attempt to make his youngest daughter eat. "Well, your mum's at work, so you can't ask her,"  
  
"Can I ask Uncle Harry then?" Kate was now looking imploringly at her father, not at all amused by the way he was holding the spoon to his own mouth and pretending to eat the mess on Sharlie's plate while rubbing his stomach and saying, "Yum, Yum!" to the baby.  
  
"Harry doesn't know," Ron said simply, still pretending to eat the horrid looking concoction his wife had left to be heated up for the baby.  
  
"I bet he does," Kate said wistfully.  
  
"He doesn't. Trust me."  
  
"Uncle Harry knows loads of stuff," the tiny redhead said matter-of-factly. "He knows a lot more than you."  
  
"Is that so?" Ron raised an eyebrow at his oldest child.  
  
Kate just nodded once. "Yep. He told me so himself."  
  
Ron snorted with laughter. "Figures."  
  
"Huh?" Kate hoisted herself onto her knees and leaned her elbows on the table. "What did you say?"  
  
"I said it figures he would tell you that. But, dear Katharina, your Uncle Harry was telling a false story. He's quite stupid actually." He feigned seriousness. "He likes to make up stories to make himself seem as smart as your mum and me."  
  
"Really? But there's no way he could ever pull that off!"  
  
Ron smiled satisfactorily, proud that his daughter thought him to be so intelligent. Until...  
  
"No one's as smart as Mum!"  
  
Ron just rolled his eyes again. Ignoring the blow to his ego, he said, "If you're going to ask a Potter, you better ask your Aunt Ginny. She's much smarter than your uncle."  
  
"Can I really go over there?" Kate's eyes lit up at the prospect of a visit to her aunt and uncle's house. Of course, she was probably more excited about seeing her cousin Lila who was the same age as her. Lila and Kate were best friends despite the fact that they were quite nearly opposites. Lila was quiet and shy while Kate was very loud, bossy, and eager to show off. Their parents often said they balanced each other out.  
  
Other people often said they were their parents made over.  
  
Ron shrugged, finally giving up on getting Sharlie to eat. "Sure, why not? I'll have to check with them first, though."  
  
Practically before he'd even gotten the words out of his mouth, Kate had brought the cordless phone to him. Ron chuckled a little as he hit speed- dial one on the phone and listened to the ringing. Both Harry and Hermione had grown up in Muggle homes and insisted that telephones were a necessity. Ron didn't mind Muggle contraptions, though; in fact, he lived in a Muggle London suburb in a house equipped with several Muggle appliances and electricity. Harry and Ginny did, too.  
  
Ron and Ginny's dad, Arthur Weasley, was in Heaven because of it.  
  
Finally, after four rings, a click sounded and a voice came on the other end of the connection. "Hello?"  
  
"What's this about I hear about you knowing loads more than me?" Ron asked, not acknowledging his long-time best friend with a greeting.  
  
A chuckle sounded from Harry's end as he said, "I have no idea what you're talking about."  
  
"Spreading lies like that could be very bad for you, Potter," Ron warned with as much seriousness as he could muster without breaking into a grin.  
  
Kate watched intently from across the room, crossing two sets of fingers behind her back and struggling to cross her toes in her sneakers.  
  
"To what do I owe this pleasure, Weasley?"  
  
Ron laughed and finally gave up the charade. "I have a kid here... Hmm... She looks to be about four foot three inches tall... She's got red hair and brown eyes and she's very loud... Do you have any idea who I'm talking about?"  
  
"Yes, I believe I might have an idea," Harry said, playing along.  
  
"Right. Well, good. She wants to come visit her favorite aunt and uncle."  
  
"You mean she wants to come here and destroy my house with another little monster, this one black hair, green eyes..."  
  
"No one said she wanted to destroy the house with you, Harry," Ron teased.  
  
Harry laughed. "A little girl with black hair and green eyes," he corrected himself haughtily. He sighed resignedly and finally said, "Sure. Send her on over; I'll light the fire."  
  
Ron gave another snorted laughter. "I'm not letting her go anywhere on her own. Are you out of your mind? This is Katie here!"  
  
Kate gave a small shocked gasp from across the room; though she was secretly pleased that it appeared that she had gotten her way.  
  
"I'll drive her over," her dad finished. "See you in a few."  
  
He hung up the phone and turned back to his daughter. "Go get your coat."  
  
Kate nearly jumped with joy as she rushed up the stairs to her room to retrieve her coat. Ron watched her go and chuckled to himself. Then an idea hit him, and his chuckle turned into a mischievous grin. Picking the phone back up, he quickly hit redial.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Hey, she's begging me to spend the night. Do you mind?" Ron smiled at the brilliance of it all.  
  
There was silence for a moment before Harry's voice returned. "She's begging you? Or you decided that life with two children doesn't leave enough time for seduction, so you're looking for a place to dump your kids for the night while you ravage my best friend?"  
  
Damn Potter and his bloody intuition. Slyly, Ron said, "I know that you must find me attractive, and I must say that I agree. But I honestly don't feel the need to ravage myself."  
  
"Other best friend."  
  
"Oh!" Ron said, faking shock. "Oh, her... You mean my wife!" He laughed slightly and said, "Okay, yeah. I really want to be alone with her without a baby crying out for no reason or a sneaky little bugger barging in. Damn if she's not Hermione's kid... Kat learned 'Alohomora' way too early for my liking..."  
  
Harry snickered from the other end. "Fine, fine. You can bring them both. I'm sure Ginny would kill for the chance to keep Sharlie overnight. And I don't think Lila's gonna protest the situation, either."  
  
"I'm sure Katie will be ecstatic." Just as he said this, the child in question bounded back down the stairs with a winter coat on.  
  
"Ecstatic about what?" she asked, eyeing the phone in her dad's hand.  
  
"See you later," Ron said before hanging up and reaching into the highchair to pick Sharlie up. "Go back upstairs and pack an overnight bag."  
  
"I get to spend the night?" She was looking at him with the utmost hopeful look.  
  
Ron nodded. "Yep! Now hurry up!"  
  
This time, she really did jump for joy before racing up the stairs at lightning fast speed. Ron followed her up the stairs to Sharlie's room and quickly packed her an overnight bag as well.  
  
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Thirty minutes later, Ron had dropped his children off at Harry's and was sitting quietly in his wife's office. He was flipping through the only magazine she had on her desk (Witch Weekly) and was humming a little song to himself to pass the time until his wife would be out of her meeting with the French Minister of Magic. She was the foreign ambassador for the British Ministry.  
  
Ron himself was an Auror, partners with Harry, in fact. Of course, Harry was working alone much of the time now, as Ron had temporarily put his career on hold to play "stay-at-home dad" to his two little girls. He went to work occasionally when it was really necessary, but most of his time was devoted to two tiny redheaded females by the name of Katharina and Sharlicia. Thinking about his new full-time position as 'Mr. Mum,' he reasoned that Witch Weekly was probably not all that useless for him.  
  
Not that he was going to gloat about that fact or anything...  
  
At that moment, the door to the office opened, and a petite woman with loads of brown curls entered the office looking thoroughly exhausted. She jumped at first sight of the man sitting at her desk, as she'd had no inkling that he was going to show up, but calmed down instantly and smiled warmly.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She crossed the office, and Ron spun around in her desk chair. She laughed as he grabbed her around the middle and pulled her onto his lap from behind.  
  
"What do you think I'm doing here?" he asked playfully.  
  
"Umm..." Hermione pretended to ponder the question until a real question entered her mind. Turning her head slightly, she said, "Where are the kids?"  
  
Ron took her turned head as an opportunity to kiss her cheek. "At Harry and Ginny's." Then he leaned into her ear and whispered, "For the whole night..."  
  
Realization took over Hermione as a smile took over her lips. "The whole night? You mean..."  
  
"Just you, me, and a big empty house," Ron said, still whispering in her ear.  
  
Hermione shifted until she was sitting completely sideways on his lap and could turn her head to look him straight in the eye. "I like the first two parts of that, but the third part isn't so great."  
  
Ron was confused and told her as much. "Huh?"  
  
Hermione sighed and raised a hand to her husband's thick red hair. "Ron, can we go away? We haven't been out of the house in forever, and I'm dying to just get away somewhere- even if it is just for one night!" She smiled at him hopefully, looking almost identical to Kate minus the hair.  
  
Ron smiled back at her before leaning in to lightly place his lips against hers. "You pick the place, and I'm there."  
  
Hermione nearly squealed her answer. "Paris!"  
  
Ron laughed at her sudden response and slowly said, "Okay... We can go to Paris..."  
  
She smiled sheepishly, obviously embarrassed about her over-exuberance. "Well, I'm in a French mood now that I've spent all afternoon conversing with the French Minister."  
  
Ron, as though he was still sixteen, wiggled an eyebrow suggestively. "A French mood, eh?"  
  
Hermione, catching his hidden meaning, rolled her eyes and playfully hit him. "Oh, shut up."  
  
But Ron was already leaning forward to capture her lips in yet another kiss, this one not light in the least. He deepened it by bringing his hand to the back of her head and probing her lips open with his own.  
  
It was a very French moment indeed.  
  
And one that Hermione certainly did not protest.  
  
When they pulled apart, Ron grinned at her. "Do you know I've been waiting to do that all day?"  
  
Hermione gave a grin of her own- the grin Ron had fallen in love with years before. "Oh, really? All day now?"  
  
He nodded. "Yep. I was sitting there trying to make Sharlie eat that shit you left in the refrigerator, and I all I could think of was, 'Wow, I would love to snog Hermione right about now...' And I was sitting in Harry's kitchen listening to him tell me something- I have no idea what- and all I could think of was, 'Can't wait to kiss 'Mione'." He flashed her yet another brilliant grin, and she laughed.  
  
"Well, Mr. Weasley," she said jokingly, "I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you."  
  
"If you think that was nice, you just wait to see what else I'm capable of." He shot her a knowing look, and she had to laugh again.  
  
"Trust me; I know what you're capable of."  
  
"Ah, yes," he said, placing a quick kiss on her forehead. "But I'm always full of surprises."  
  
Hermione knew this, too, very well. Playing along anyway, though, she raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh, really?"  
  
Ron nodded as he leaned forward and placed his lips against the side of her neck. Kissing upwards over her chin and resting at her ear, he whispered, "Full of surprises I'm dying to let you in on."  
  
She closed her eyes instinctively as her head lolled to the right side. Then, raising it to place a soft kiss against his lips, she whispered, "I can't wait."  
  
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So? Should I continue? Do you want to read more about Lila and Kate's adventures? Harry and Ginny? Ron and Hermione? Just let me know! ( 


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